Kerry pulling ahead?
The Newsweek poll, which surveyed 1,013 registered voters, found that Kerry had a 3-percentage-point lead, reversing a 5-point advantage Bush enjoyed in a survey taken before the debate. When independent candidate Ralph Nader was added to the mix, Kerry's lead was 2 points.Kerry's lead was within the poll's 4-point margin of error, but it was the first poll to show Kerry in front since August.
The poll, taken Thursday through yesterday, found that 61 percent thought Kerry had won the debate, 62 percent felt Kerry was more confident and self-assured, and 51 percent said Kerry had a better command of issues and facts.
Hey - that's good enough for me! I'll be interested to se ehow other polls - which had it closer a week ago - now turn out. If nothing else this proves two things:
1. The situation remains volatile,
2. Americans can think. They took the debate serioysly. So much for those who were saying that sure he won the debate, but that won't change minds.
And Friedman is back (NYT op ed) with acolymn that slams Bush in Iraq.
I don't know what is salvageable there anymore. I hope it is something decent and I am certain we have to try our best to bring about elections and rebuild the Iraqi Army to give every chance for decency to emerge there. But here is the cold, hard truth: This war has been hugely mismanaged by this administration, in the face of clear advice to the contrary at every stage, and as a result the range of decent outcomes in Iraq has been narrowed and the tools we have to bring even those about are more limited than ever.
What happened? The Bush team got its doctrines mixed up: it applied the Powell Doctrine to the campaign against John Kerry - "overwhelming force" without mercy, based on a strategy of shock and awe at the Republican convention, followed by a propaganda blitz that got its message across in every possible way, including through distortion. If only the Bush team had gone after the remnants of Saddam's army in the Sunni Triangle with the brutal efficiency it has gone after Senator Kerry in the Iowa-Ohio-Michigan triangle. If only the Bush team had spoken to Iraqis and Arabs with as clear a message as it did to the Republican base. No, alas, while the Bush people applied the Powell Doctrine in the Midwest, they applied the Rumsfeld Doctrine in the Middle East. And the Rumsfeld Doctrine is: "Just enough troops to lose." Donald Rumsfeld tried to prove that a small, mobile army was all that was needed to topple Saddam, without realizing that such a limited force could never stabilize Iraq. He never thought it would have to. He thought his Iraqi pals would do it. He was wrong.
Bottom line - folks are ctaching on. Now if kerry can get across the clear message that he has screwed up everything else just as he screwed up Iraq. Mislead, misled, misled - drive it home. Misled should trump flip-flop.
Oh - and Reuters has pointed out that the so-called 100,000 trained folks in Iraq is really more like 22,000 - wghy do most of the media continue to let him get away with these lies. Speak up. Ask questions. Do your job.
